Improvement in cleaning and separating the fibers of flax and hemp



i @Narie STATES ATENT Errea GEoRGE w. BILLINGs, or NEW YORK, n. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN CLEANING ND SEPARATING THE FIBERS OF FLAX AND HEMP.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 41,826, dated March 8, 1864 antedated vFebruary 21, 1864.

To all whom it 'may concern Beit known that I, GEORGE W. BILLINGs, of the city, count-y, and State of New York, haye discovered and invented a new and useful Method of Cleansing and Itening Flax and Hemp; and I do hereby declare-that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters marked thereon, making a part of this specication.

The nature of my invention consists in removing from the bers of ax and hemp, or any other brous substances of' like or analogous character, all the silex, resin, and other foreign and deleterious matters, leaving the ber perfectly free and clean, in condition ready to be worked by the ordinary or modern and improved machinery into any desired fabric. v

Before being operated upon the ber should be -rotted and dressed clean and-free from stones or wood. It may be rotted by water or dew; but I prefer that which has been rotted and dressed by my improved process and machinery.

Having constructed a vat orvtank of any suitable size and material-say twenty feet long, four feet wide, and three feet deepof seasoned hard pine, or of any hard wood or suitable material, I place in it a perforated platform raised two and one-half inches from the bottom for the purpose of forming a space between the ber and bottom of the vat or tank to receive the deposits loosened and deposited from the ber. I then place in the vat or tank, upon the perforated platform, the ax or hemp or other ber in any way and form most convenient for handling, until it is lled to within eight inches of the top, upon which I place a lattice covering of any suitable wood of sufcient strength and weight to prevent the ber from rising to the top of the vat or tank.

I then let into the vat or tank tepid water until it has covered the ber to the depth of two or more inches, keeping it always covering the ber, and at a temperature ofnear 900 Fahrenheit, by any of the known or usual artieialmeans. If the ber is in proper condition when placed in the vat or tank in from ten (l0) to fteen (l5) hours after the vator tankis lled with the water, fermentation will days, by which time the separation and loosening of `the silex, resin, and other foreign and deleterious'matters is complete and the fermentation stops.

Should the condition of the ber be such as to require a longer time, the fermentation will continue longer than the time I have specied, and the ber must be left undisturbed until the fermentation ceases, which done I draw off the liquid from the vat or tank and rinse off the ber before removing by forcing through it clean tepid water. y

I then take the ber from the vat or tank and thoroughly wash and dry it, which may \bev done by hand or by any suitable machinery. I prefer machinery, using steam in the following way and manner:

I construct a pipe or pipes of from three (3) to six (6) inches in diameter and about three (3) feet long, which I surround with a steam-jacket in such way as will enable me tointroduce into the jacket superheated steam, and thereby raise the temperature inside the pipes to about four hundred (400) degrees Fahrenheit. The ends of the pipes are so arranged that after being lled with the ber they can bereadily and tightly closed. The pipes being lled with the ber,

tenor steam under a pressure of bout seventy each end alternately, which forces from and carries away from the ber all the silex, resin, and other foreign and deleterious matters which may still have remained with it when put into the pipes, the water or steam being ejected through the pipes until the ber has been thoroughly cleaned. After the ber is thus washed I introduce superheated steam into the steam-jacket, by which the ber is thoroughly dried, after which it is taken from the pipes. l

The pipes for washing may be made in nests of two or more and be operated by mechanical means, and the steam and hot water fed to them in the same way and manner, or any similar way and manner, that steam is applied to an engine. To accelerate the washin g, alkali or soap may be added to the water.

. I do not coune myself to the method above described of leaving the ber in the` vat or tank immersed in the same tepid water with begin and continue from four (4) to six V(6) by means of connecting-pipes I inject hot wa- (70) pounds to the square inch into them trom which the vat is irst iilled until it is removed to be Washed and eleansed, but the tepid water may he changed as often as desired, the ber continued to be immersed so long as fermentation continues, and to be removed for Washingonly and so soon as thefermentation ceases.v

v movable; e, the pipe through which the superheated steam is conveyed into the steamiacket.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The loosening,` and dissolving of all resinous matters, silex, and other foreign and deleterions substances from flax, hemp, and other fibrous substances of like or analogous chari aeter by fermentation and removing the same by Washing and the moist-ure by drying, substantially as described and set forth.

eno. W. BILLINGs.

Vitnessesz J orIN A. HILLERY, E. D. MOORE. 

